Family flour mill taken over

Smiths Flour Mills, Eastgate

WORKSOP family-owned milling business Smiths Flour Mills has been sold to a new buyer this week.

The company, whose head office is based on Eastgate, was bought out by Northamptonshire firm Whitworth Bros Ltd.

Around 130 people are currently employed at Smiths Flour Mills, but the new company is keen to stress no redundancies will be made at this stage.

Managing director Roger Butler said it was ‘business’ as usual for the flour milling firm.

“The purchase of these assets reaffirms the commitment of the family to invest in this sector for the long term,” he said.

“Given the speed and circumstances of the change in ownership, the first priority of the combined management team is the continued supply of milled products to our customers.”

The company announced this week that Zolfo Cooper were appointed as joint administrators of Smiths Flour Mills Ltd on Tuesday.

Smiths Flour Mills is one of the largest independent flour millers in the country and also has sites at Langley Mill in Notts and Holbeach in Lincolnshire.

The Smiths family established mills at Langley and Walsall in the 1820s and acquired the Worksop head office site in 1906.

Northern Dairies (later Northern Foods Plc) acquired the company in 1972, and following various capital investment projects a new maize and rice mill at Worksop gave way to a unique range of products from 1975 to 1983.

There was a £9.5m investment into the Worksop site in 1995.

The company provides ingredients for a wide variety of customer products, including bakery, convenience food, breakfast cereals and confectionery.